Tag: Gaming

Pardon me if I appear a bit over-excited, but any RPG fan will probably agree that such excitement is justified, for Bioware has officially announced Mass Effect 3. Have a look at the debut trailer that was unveiled at the Spike TV Video Game Awards.

Yes, Mass Effect 3 will finally allow us to explore Earth. In fact, in the final installment in the trilogy, the fate of Earth and human civilization will rest on Shepherd’s shoulders. The Reapers are coming from beyond the known realms of space, and it’s up to you to unite all civilizations for one final confrontation.

EA didn’t divulge too many details about the game; however, Mass Effect 3 is slated to be released in the fall of 2011.

One of the most famous games in the PopCap franchise, Bejeweled, will be releasing a brand new version Bejeweled 3 on December 7 for both PC and Mac users.

When I started playing Bejeweled few years ago, I found it really silly, but I quickly got hooked onto it and have never been able to let go. I even went ahead and downloaded Bejeweled 2 for free when they were having a sale (yes, greedy me, but I told you too).

Now that Bejeweled 3 is coming out, I can’t wait. It surely has to have a lot of new things considering that PopCap is also so excited about it. By the way check out a video of Bejeweled 3 and their new Zen mode below, click here if you can’t see it.

Android already has quite a few decent role playing games like Zenonia, Dungeon Hunter and Crusade of Destiny. However, all of them fail to capture the depth we have come to associate with RPG games. The good news is that if HyperDevbox lives up to its promise, then we will soon have a truly stunning RPG for Android.

You might already be familiar with HyperDevbox thanks to their other awesome Android game – ExZeus Arcade. They are currently working on Spectral Souls – Resurrection of the Ethereal Empires for Android, which will feature a stunning 52 soundtracks and 84 characters. All of this will amount to more than 1 GB of data and provide in excess of 100 hours of gameplay.

Spectral Souls is an official port of the PSP game by Idea Factory, and is a tactical role playing game. Don’t expect this to be a walk in the park, as HyperDevbox has stated that the game will be deep and challenging. Check out the video embedded below to get an idea about the gameplay. Spectral Souls will be released before the end of the year. It will require a meaty processor (although there will be a low-resolution mode), and run on Android 1.6 and above.

Age of Empires III is selling for only 10 cents, yes you heard it right, the price has dropped from $40 dollars to 10 cents for a limited time. This offer is only available for US users right now, so drop everything and buy this game right away.

Bad news folks. Portal 2, the sequel to the mind-bendingly awesome Portal, has been delayed to April 18, 2011. This will undoubtedly upset the fans of the original innovative puzzle game that edged out many high-budget blockbusters to win over 30 game of the year awards. But then, this is Valve we are talking about. Did any of you actually expect them to deliver this on time? Heck, the two months delay is a pretty small deal when compared with some of Valve’s previous schedule slippages. Here’s Valve’s tongue-in-cheek press release:

Valve today announced that Portal 2â€” the sequel to the ground-breaking title that won over 30 game of the year awards, despite missing its original ship dateâ€”will now be available the week of April 18th, 2011. This two month slip not only marks the shortest delay in Valve’s proud tradition of delays, it represents the approaching convergence of Valve Time and Real Time. Though this convergence spells doom for humanity, it will not affect the new Portal 2 release date.

Valve might not be known for delivering games on time, but they are definitely known for their quality. Let’s hope that Portal 2 will truly live up to Valve’s reputation.

The next installation of the popular Call of Duty game will be released on November 9, 2010. Call of Duty: Black Ops is now available for pre-order on Amazon and other sites.

Call of Duty: Black Ops is the seventh installment of the series and is based on live fire conflicts of the Cold War era. The popular First Person Shooter (FPS) game is highly anticipated and is a following up to the 2009 highest selling game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

The game is set in South East Asia and boasts of urban air and ground combat warfare and snow combat in Soviet region. It also includes jungle combat in some stages. The game adds a new arsenal of weapons and vehicles tied to the Cold War era.

If you have been waiting to get your hands on the game, you can start out by pre-ordering it. The game price ranges from $29.99 for the Nintendo DS to $59.99 for the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. Go ahead and pre-order Call of Duty: Black OPS.

If you are curious to see what the game is all about, watch the Call of Duty: Black Ops video trailer below. (contains mature content not suitable for children)

The wait for all Sony Playstation lovers and aficionados is finally over. Sony has now officially launched the Playstation store in India. You can download full games for your Sony Playstation starting from Rs 225 for the Sony PS3 and Rs 170 onwards for the PSP (Playstation Portable) and the PSP Go. The games which you purchase from the Playstation store can be used on 5 other activated Playstation consoles.

The subscription service for the Playstation store – called the PlayStationPlus gives the users access to premium content, discounts, services and early access to beta trials and demos, free games and downloads. The annual subscription charges are Rs. 2850 and with this subscription users can avail content worth approximately Rs. 14, 000 absolutely free. There is also a 90 day subscription package for a sum of Rs. 885 in which the user can avail content worth approximately Rs. 6500 free.

When it comes to distributing content through online stores, Microsoft’s track record has been less than impressive, to put things politely. They fumbled with the Windows Marketplace and ultimately shut it down. Games for Windows has been a similar sorry tale. While others like Steam, Direct2Drive and Impulse Valve signed on hundreds of developers, Microsoft restricted itself to just a few dozen titles. Microsoft’s only saving grace has been the Zune Store and the Xbox Live Marketplace.

Now, Microsoft has announced that it will relaunch the Games for Windows Marketplace on November 15. The revamped online store will sport a redesigned interface and feature 100 high quality titles at launch. Customers will be able to purchase games using either credit/debit cards or their Microsoft points (from existing Xbox Live accounts). Purchased titles can be downloaded using the web browser, 3rd party download managers or Microsoft’s download manager. Thankfully, Microsoft has decided against forcing customers to go through cumbersome mechanisms involving the Windows Live desktop client.

With Games for Windows Marketplace, we set out to create a digital store built for PC gamers end-to-end,said Kevin Unangst, senior global director, PC and Mobile Gaming, at Microsoft. And by integrating with our existing Xbox LIVE and Windows Live services, we’ve made it easier than ever for millions of gamers to see for themselves how easy buying PC games can be.

Titles that will be available at launch include Fable: The Lost Chapters, Grand Theft Auto III, Dead Rising 2, Lost Planet 2, Flight Simulator, Gears of War and Halo. Microsoft has also promised to launch new titles every week. One of the biggest draws of the Xbox store, ‘Deal of the Week’ that offers high quality titles at a deep discount, will also be available.

Remember Frets on Fire the open source Guitar Hero clone? Also, remember InstantAction? The embeddable gaming client? Well, put those two together, and you have Instant Jam! The embeddable and totally awesome rhythm game that lets you play to music from your own library.

Yes, you read that right from your own library. That is epicly awesome, thank you InstantJam.

So what is so blatantly awesome about it, apart from it being a Guitar Hero clone lookalike that you can play on your own website? (As long as it supports iFrames, of course)

For starts, it marries social networking with half-decent gaming. (At least much better than Farmville or Mafia Wars). Secondly it allows you to use either your keyboard or a standard guitar controller. Also, it’s something like Grooveshark, with loads of songs being added daily for you to play.

Of course, it’s compatiblewith Facebook:-

Play along with your favorite songs from your own music library for free. Fully integrated with Facebook, Instant Jam combines the very best elements of rhythm gaming with social media: challenge friends, show off achievements, share in-game gifts and more.

Oh, you want to play it? Well, why didn’t you tell me? It’s right here!